The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-03
MAX DWIGHT'S REWARD.

Max Dwight was ready for his early
tramp to the upland lake, where as he
knew, there was certain outcropping OF
roots suited to the manufacture OF some
rustic benches, he had been promising to
make for his wife.
Mistress Janet accompanied him to the
porch of their cottage, carrying Tottie,
who in her pink and white prettiness OF
babyhood, was as like the young mother
as the wild rosebud is like the wild rose.
"The rain must have been heavy above
here" remarked Mistress Dwight, noting
the aspect of the creek in the Divide.
The stream, ordinarily tangled like a
silver wire among the bouIders and
bosky hollows at the base Of the ridge,
was chatting in it's bed, the acceleration
of its current betrayed by muffled roar.
eyes, when the Otter's boosting along
like that, the pity is that the mill stands
still, and the hands are idle" complained
Dwight
"Don't fret, Max, I'd not get my
benches but for the mill machinery be-
ing out of gear"
He laughed, kissed her and Tottie, and
a moment later was striding down the
path to the bridge. whose arches connect
ed the jutting ridge on which he lived
with the further side of the Otter. This
stream lower down, did the work OF an
army of giants, turning the wheels Of the
mills and factories, in which hundreds Of
bread winners daily toiled. Alluvial
bottoms, cultivated farms, village homes
of peace and plenty, and countless other
evidences of prosperity lay behind
Dwight when he had crossed the bridge
and turned into the path leading upward
to the lake plateau.
Always observsnt, he noticed that the
creek was steadily rising.
"The rain must have flushed the lake
considerably" he thought, stopping once
to inspect tangled mat OF drift whirl-
ing past. "Bless mel if that tint lily
pad from the lakes bed. However any
thing short of hurricane" He stop
ped short.
A horrifying fear had throttled him in
the rugged path. The morning was in
stinct with joyousness. To the ear came
the matin symphonies of nature; to the
eye her harmonies of light, color, move
ment. Overhead were BOOKINGS of swell
ing cumui white as fresh washed sheep
browsing in a spacious gpastursge of the
myosntis bloom.
Whence was the menace of evil?
Wrestling with the Shape in the way,
as Christian wrestled with Apollyon,
Dwight saw, drifting by, another clump
of lily pads, tangled with vine full OF
foliage and budding fruit.
"It's a branch of the wild grape that
climbs the sycamore next the lakes rim, /"
came to him with the force of assurance,
and Gas ting aside his ak, he sped up the
ascent he had been leisurely climbing.
Reaching the plateau, in the midst Of
whose picturesqueness was EMPOWERED
the lake, overhsnging the defile like a
Bablyonish garden, he saw, almost to his
chagrin, it's hundreds of millions of
cubic feet of water placidly smiling and
dimpling in the sunshine The rain had
not flushed it-hushed? The lake was
lower than it's lowest water mark
The fear he had shaken off leaped
upon him and tore at his vitals again. As
his gaze darted along the embankment to
the left through which the creek flowed,
hesaw that the stream was not only mo-
mently eating its way deeper into the
rim, but that, here and there, the en-
bankment showed assures, indicating an
extended dislodgement of the natural
supports OF the lake basin. A practical
engineer himself, Dwight had always en-
tertsined doubt of the stability of that
freak of nature the disproportionate
fountain head of Otter Greek. Some day
he had thought, the cray-hsh, the offers
the thawing and the freezing would do
their work, and then would come the
drainage of the great basin.
But not in his day Oh, mol Not when
he had just builded home for Janet and
the black eyed Tottie right in the shadow
OF the superintendent ruin; not while the
valley below was sstir with the whirr Of
the mills, the stepping of busy feet along
its ways of pleasantness and peace.
But it had come in his day As he stood
staring, fssure widened and bold
stream shot forth. At the sight he turn
ed and fed back down the path. Naturally,